Writing on the Wall?

Smoke, Mirrors, and Orders:   Bowing to pressure and declining poll numbers, Trump held one of his press conference/pep rallies on the White House lawn yesterday where he trumpeted his relatively modest executive order on police reform.  The order, mostly an effort by Trump to appear to be doing something, encourages limiting, rather than eliminating, the use of chokeholds and moves to create a national database for police misconduct. Before making the announcement he met with families of some of the victims of police brutality and a large group of law enforcement professionals.  During the press conference Trump talked about the need for strong law enforcement and his intent to provide police with more powerful equipment, because really, that’s all he cares about, criticized the Obama/Biden administration for their lack of action, neglecting to mention that his administration had largely rolled back Obama’s policing reforms, and again threatened to do something about those lawless, largely peaceful protesters who’ve taken over a section of Seattle.  The usual group of Republican leaders and token Black officials were in the audience, not a problem for Democrats who likely breathed a sigh of relief at being left off the invite list since those present, with the exception of the Secret Service, the folks that Trump is now referring to in his tweets as his SS, wore no masks as they shook(!) hands. And why wouldn’t they shake hands, the coronavirus thing is going to disappear soon, or like AIDs will be eliminated via vaccine.  At least that’s the official Trump administration position.  To be clear, COVID 19 is still out there, currently at 113,000 the country’s mortality is predicted to reach 213,000 by October and though one or more of those promised COVID vaccines might actually be available next year if we’re lucky, there still is no vaccine for AIDS, just a few highly effective therapeutics that took years to develop.  Virus guru Anthony Fauci who is still warning of a second wave in the fall, and who wants us, especially Trump and those Governors in the spiking states to know that the first wave hasn’t left yet, reports that he hasn’t met with Trump in weeks, another indication that Trump has put the virus behind him.  None of that is much of a concern to VP Pence, the purported head of the Virus Task Force.  Yesterday the Wall Street Journal published his op-ed in which he celebrated the administration’s “success” in containing the coronavirus epidemic while slamming the press for “sounding the alarm bells over a ‘second wave’ of infections,” saying “such panic is overblown.”  Having failed to contain the virus, Pence is all in on pretending it away, the same strategy he applied to AIDS when he was Governor of Indiana. 

On the Road Again: Trump is still planning to head to Tulsa this weekend for his first “post” virus rally.  According to campaign manager Brad Pascale somewhere north of a bazillion of his die hard fans have applied for tickets to the event in the 18,000 capacity indoor, poorly ventilated arena. While there have been some reports that the Trump team is looking for a more suitable outdoor venue, it’s probably too late for that so the rally will likely move forward as planned even though many in Tulsa, at least those into facts and science are fearful that Trump’s campaign stop will cause their already spiking virus count to go even higher.  In other virus news, though Texas Governor Abbot insists that he still has plenty of ICU beds and that his spiking virus counts are due to a combination of all those not so invincible young’uns out partying and too many virus tests, a conclusion also reached by Florida Governor DeSantis, officials in several Texas cities and Florida counties are seeking to impose facemask requirements.  Hopefully, they will have more luck than Montgomery, Alabama did with their attempt to impose masking.  Despite pleas from medical professionals and a number of businesses, their City council voted down a face mask proposal, sad but not surprising given Trump’s popularity and his failure to model lifesaving behavior.

Book Prevention: Trump might not be into face coverings but he’s all in on restraining book publication.  Late yesterday, the Justice Department filed a civil lawsuit against former national security advisor John Bolton, alleging that publication of his “The Room Where it Happened” book would be a violation of the nondisclosure agreements he signed and will compromise national security.  That’s the book that has been more than thoroughly vetted but that Trump wants quashed.  Likewise, it appears that Trump is also looking to prevent the publication of his niece Mary Trump’s tell all book, asserting that she signed an NDA back when the family “resolved” their fight over Trump’s father’s  estate.  It’s not clear that Trump and the Justice Department’s actions will stop the publication of either book. Notably preview copies are already in the hands of various press outlets.  Anyway, Mary Trump’s book is already pre-selling like hotcakes and it’s fair to assume that Trump’s attempts to stop Bolton’s book from seeing the light of day will goose his sales as well, compensating for some if not all of the sale depressing disdain that hit Bolton after he failed to testify during the Trump impeachment hearings.  On the Justice front, House Judiciary Chair Jerome Nadler has subpoenaed former Mueller prosecutor Aaron Zelinsky who now works in the Maryland US Attorney office to appear next week.  Zelinsky had resigned from the Roger Stone case in protest over the handling of his sentencing.  Nadler also subpoenaed John Elias, the Acting chief of staff of the Justice Department’s Antitrust division to testify about Attorney General Barr’s politicization  of the Justice Department.  Zelinsky’s lawyer says that he will comply with the subpoena.  In other Justice Department news, three officials are leaving, including Joseph Hunt the Head of the Civil Division who signed yesterday’s lawsuit against John Bolton, Brian Benczkowski, the head of the Justice Department’s criminal division,  and Noel Francisco, the solicitor general who was responsible for representing the administration at the Supreme Court.  Maybe they’re just ready to move on, maybe they see the writing that we all hope is on the wall.